Mick's ace leaves him speechless - but not for long
Alastair Down, the Racing Post
31 July 2011
MICK EASTERBY led the applause for Mick Easterby when he went up to collect the trainer's trophy after the Stewards' Cup and while the 80-year-old has seen more than most, he has never before come across the likes of Hoof It, who put the sprint handicap record books through the shredder with a thumping victory under 10st.
Few characters on Easterby's scale still roam the earth (outside of secure accommodation!) and he was given a great cheer by the Goodwood crowd. It was also noticeable that the first two men to congratulate the older chancer as he stood awaiting Hoof It's return were Sir Henry Cecil and John Dunlop, men cut from rather different cloth but who appeared genuinely chuffed to bits at Easterby's triumph.
It is almost impossible to overstate what a fantastic performance it was from Hoof It, who never looked in danger from three furlongs out and simply outclassed his rivals. Easterby described himself as "speechless" - an unlikely state of affairs that would lead the evening news were it ever to happen - and then proceeded to talk until not a donkey on the Sussex Downs had a full set of hind legs.
Before Hoof It had his first run of the season at York's May meeting the message smuggled from Sheriff Hutton was that he was working the house down and was a Group horse in the making.
Nine times out of ten such assessments are curdled by reality, but on this occasion the North Yorkshire rumour mill has proved spot on. The gap between top handicappers and Group-race sprinters is narrow indeed and on this evidence Hoof It is a Group 1 winner waiting to happen.
He has tremendous tactical speed and has that rare ability to go again at the business end. A strapping individual with physique to spare, he is hugely exciting to watch now and could prove a whole lot better yet.
Easterby is no stranger to top-class sprinters and back in 1976 his Lochnager carried all before him winning the King's Stand, the July Cup and the Nunthorpe, and the trainer, warming to his theme of being speechless, said: "He's better than Lochnager. He wants another year on his back and then he will be unbeatable. How's that for bullshit?" Easterby owns half of Hoof It in partnership with Chubby Chandler and Lee Westwood, and it may be that the trainer is responsible for the fact that this blinding sprinter is not entered in the Nunthorpe.
As far as Mick is concerned money is for counting, not spending, and when York's great sprint was mentioned he confessed: "I haven't got the bugger in it."
When informed that for a mere £20,000 Hoof It can be supplemented, a look of acute physical pain passed over the great man's face. But come on Mick, your share would only be ten grand and you'd find that under any mattress in the house.
Hoof It's jockey Kieren Fallon said: "This horse is a monster. I was getting to them too easy between the three and the two and so I thought I'd better go and get the rail as I was going to have to take it up sooner than I wanted. He is still a big baby and has a big future, a Group 1 horse one day."
How often do you hear of any horse in a Stewards' Cup picking them up "too easy" and having to take it up because he was so going so strongly? And remember this horse was doing it under 10st. It was simply awesome.
The only blot on Hoof It's copybook was his defeat in the Wokingham at Ascot, but by all accounts they learned a bit about him that day and he was fresh as paint here, despite having picked up his 6lb penalty just seven days ago.
